The cooking of meat by the application of heated smoke from a wood burning fire has been practiced for many years. This procedure is known to give the resulting meat product a highly desirable flavor. Nevertheless, the achievement of uniformly cooked meat and the efficient use of fuel and energy are continual problems associated with such a procedure. A variety of methods and designs aimed at solving these problems are seen in the prior art discussed hereinbelow.
The present invention achieves energy efficient, uniform cooking of meat while maintaining the desirable effect of a wood burning fire. Heated smoke from a wood burning firebox passes through a joinder flue into a cooking chamber wherein it is urged upward by means of an inlet baffle. A convection fan located within a discharge duct connected to the ceiling of the cooking chamber draws the entering smoke through a suction port and blasts it through the duct. The discharge duct channels the smoke toward the front of the cooking chamber and then downward, thereby creating a turbulent, rolling air flow motion and a uniform temperature profile within the cooking chamber. The cooler exhaust smoke is drawn outward at the bottom rear of the cooking chamber through outlet ducts located on either side of the inlet baffle. The exhaust smoke collects in a plenum chamber and is urged outward through an exhaust stack. A bypass damper in the plenum chamber directs smoke from the firebox into the cooking chamber when the barbecue pit is in the cooking mode. The bypass damper also permits direct passage of smoke from the firebox into the plenum chamber and out through the exhaust stack when the barbecue pit is in the evacuation mode. Temperature within the cooking chamber is monitored by a thermostatically controlled firebox damper er on the firebox access door and a thermostatically controlled gas burner adjacent to the firebox. The gas burner functions both as a fire starter and as a temperature floor. The result is an energy efficient, wood burning barbecue pit in which meat may be uniformly cooked.